burnt files
by wild wolf free17
Summary: drabbles about The Losers movieverse; slash and gen
1. now and from whom toward what longings

**Title**: now and from whom toward what longings

**Fandom**: _The Losers_ movie'verse

**Disclaimer**: not my characters; title from Adrienne Rich.

**Warnings**: pre-movie

**Pairings**: implied everyone/Jensen

**Rating**: PG

**Wordcount**: 160

**Point** **of** **view**: third

**Prompt**: sashay

* * *

Sometimes, Clay would almost swear that Jensen _sashays_. He's pretty sure the kid doesn't know what he's doing; Jensen seems to not even be aware of just how good-looking he is.

But when he does anything to catch someone's eye, it's almost always Cougar. And Cougar's always watching him. Cougar has all their backs, Clay knows, but he pays special attention to Jensen, and Jensen definitely needs the extra watch. He's the smartest of them all, but so young and stupid. And his mouth just takes off sometimes, digging him into deeper and deeper holes.

Clay has seen Roque looking at Jensen sometimes, but as far as he knows Roque's never made a move. Pooch is completely in love with his wife, and Clay himself—well, he's tired. Too tired to start something with a kid.

Anyway, Clay's pretty sure that Cougar staked his territory not too long after Jensen joined the team, and Cougar is fucking dangerous.


	2. I scrawled my name with a hurricane

**Title**: I scrawled my name with a hurricane

**Fandom**: _The Losers_ movie'verse

**Disclaimer**: not my characters; title from Carol Ann Duffy.

**Warnings**: spoilers for end of movie

**Pairings**: none stated

**Rating**: PG13

**Wordcount**: 155

**Point** **of** **view**: third

* * *

Only Aisha is with him when Clay finally tracks down Max. Pooch and Jensen are safe at home, and Cougar's watching them both to make sure they stay that way. Clay knows that only pride kept Max from using their families against them. He was so sure they weren't a threat—but he knows the truth now, so Cougar is the guard.

So Clay and Aisha focus on finding Max a second time and the fucker is a stone's-throw from the Mediterranean when they do. His operation has been torn wide open, but he still has connections, still has dirt on a dozen world leaders and enough money hidden away to finance three wars.

But Clay and Aisha find him, and Aisha's only requirement is that she be the one to strike the killing blow.

Clay is more than fine with that, since he has twenty-five kids to take out of Max's hide.


	3. The summer flowers depart

**Title**: The summer flowers depart

**Fandom**: _The Losers_ movieverse

**Disclaimer**: not my characters; title from Browning

**Warnings**: AU during movie; character death

**Pairings**: none stated

**Rating**: PG  
**Wordcount**: 95

**Point of view**: third

* * *

They all hear, _Clay, I need an exit_. Clay gives the direction, but Cougar isn't there, not yet. He spent an extra half a minute dealing with guards who shouldn't have been there, so he's not in place when Jensen needs back-up.

They all hear Jensen's bullshit, trying to buy time. They all hear the shot and one of the guards stuttering an apology, with tears in his voice.

Cougar is half a minute too late. He stares through the scope, sees the guards crouched over Jensen, and pulls the trigger three times.


	4. swirl of sand grains and stars

**Title**: swirl of sand grains and stars

**Fandom**: _The Losers_ movieverse

**Disclaimer**: not my characters; title from Betsy Sholl

**Warnings**: pre-movie

**Pairings**: Cougar/Jensen

**Rating**: PG

**Wordcount**: 205

**Point** **of** **view**: third

**Prompt**: cephalopod

* * *

See, the thing about Cougar is that he's a stealth-snuggler. None of the rest of them ever mention it to him because he is one scary bastard, but he's like an octopus if you're within his reach when he's asleep. Once he decides to trust someone, then being near them doesn't wake him up. But if a stranger or someone he doesn't trust gets near him while he's asleep, then he wakes up with a gun in hand.

It didn't take long for Clay, Roque, and Pooch to keep their distance, if they had any room for distance. But some places where they've bedded down, there was no room for personal space, so they had to make the best of Cougar's octopus tendencies.

And then the team got assigned a new kid genius and he loved to cuddle. So anytime they had to scrunch up, Jensen slept next to Cougar and if he got snuggled, he woke up happy.

"Don't let it interfere with the job," Clay ordered Jensen and Cougar. Jensen blushed and stuttered an explanation while Cougar tipped his hat.

No one else says a thing. Cougar's a scary bastard and Jensen is less annoying when he's spent the night cuddling, and that's that.


	5. a fine line

**Title**: a fine line

**Disclaimer**: not my characters

**Warnings**: future!fic

**Pairings**: implied Cougar/Jensen

**Rating**: PG

**Wordcount**: 320

**Point of view**: third

**Notes**: any pairing or gen (but I would like Cougar/Jensen), there's a fine line between going rogue and going darkside

* * *

Of them all, Pooch is the least likely to lose it completely. He's got a wife and a baby waiting for him, and they will always come first; Clay, Jensen, and Cougar know that. Aisha's already closer to the edge—hell, considering who her daddy was, they're all pretty sure she's crossed it at one time or another.

Clay may spout all that _we're the good guys, only going after bad guys, and we'll clear our names, and it'll be sunshine and puppies and American Fourth of July barbecues, goddamn it_, but they know better.

It started with them going after Max. Clearing their names. Getting Pooch home. And it changed. Hell, Jensen had flirted with the line before, hacking into anything he wanted, playing with people from thousands of miles away. And how many people did they kill in Miami?

Cougar's got a past he won't talk about, Clay's getting less concerned about collateral damage by the day, Aisha's just all-around terrifying, and Pooch...

Jensen knows that Clay's gonna cut Pooch loose soon. Tell him to sit this one out, stay home to barbecue with his wife and kid. He's got the best chance of them all. All Jensen really cares about is his sister and niece and the team. Cougar.

So, yeah. Clay'll tell Pooch to stay home and then he'll offer the rest of them a choice, Jensen and Cougar and Aisha.

It's a fine line between going rogue and going darkside. Rogue is just to clear your name, if the higher ups are bastards with their own agenda who hurt innocents. But _darkside_…

Pooch is the best of them. Jensen knows that. Jensen's always been a little off-center, a little too smart, too impulsive. He needs someone to follow. Someone who makes the decisions, tells him what to do. So he'll stay with Clay, as long as Cougar does, no matter what Clay is doing.


	6. ours

**Title**: ours

**Disclaimer**: not my characters

**Warnings**: mentions of torture; child abuse

**Pairings**: Implied non-con underage OMCs/Jensen

**Rating**: PG

**Wordcount**: 275

**Point of view**: third

**Prompt**: Jensen (/any), "This is nothing compared to what happened to me in the fifth grade."

* * *

Jake's always been ahead of the curve, and he caught the attention of powerful people quite a bit as a kid. He was too smart for anyone's good, and too stupid to know better, and when he was ten, a powerful man made a deal with his dad and Jake went away for awhile.

He was gone for a month. Everyone was told he ran away, but school was quiet since the main troublemaker had gone, so no one was really bothered.

He spent a month doing whatever he was told, making plans that never came to fruition, and trying to ignore anything that wasn't numbers or computers. He honestly never expected to get sent home. He thought they'd kill him once he finished.

Later, when he was a little older and not much wiser, he realized that they didn't kill him because he could still be of use to them. He'd already proven how easy he was to break.

o0o

Pooch and Clay are yelling. Aisha is somewhere, hopefully trying to find a way in so that she can kill all the bastards. Cougar is also somewhere, probably making impossible shots.

And Jake, Jake is bleeding, and laughing, and telling the guy with the knife how bad at this torture thing he is, because, dude, it took more than this when Jake was ten.

Jake's harder to break now, and he has people he knows care about him, people who didn't sell him to bad men for a month, people who will find him when he goes missing and kill anyone who hurt him.

So, he can look at this jerkoff with the knife and laugh.


	7. something vital

**Title**: something vital

**Disclaimer**: not my characters

**Warnings**: somewhat darkish!Jensen; child abuse

**Pairings**: none

**Rating**: PG

**Wordcount**: 390

**Point of view**: third

**Prompt**: Any, Any, Learning how to hurt

* * *

Some people are just born _wrong_. Missing something vital, something important. Something that lets them connect with others, to understand and empathize about pain and fear.

Dad liked to drink, and Dad liked to hit, and Mom always got out of the way, out of the house. Sometimes, she forgot to take Jessie and Jake with her.

Jessie tried to shield Jake, and when Jake got big enough, he returned the favor. And after Mom died-accident or suicide, Jake didn't know and he didn't care-when Dad decided he wanted Jessie to take Mom's place, Jake used thirteen years of lessons and killed Dad.

And he made it hurt. Made Dad beg and whimper and scream. He took his time because the neighbors didn't care, had never cared, and when Jessie came home at dawn, quiet and solemn, Dad was gone. The house was scrubbed clean.

Jake loved his sister, but she was the only one in the world.

Two years of highschool, one year of college—way ahead of the curve—and he joined the army, to make sure Jessie would be provided for, and to learn. He learned many things in the army.

Then came Colonel Clay's team, the best of the best, the scariest and most dangerous men he'd ever met. And he pulled on the mask that hid his rage from Dad, the joker and the clown, the dumb smart kid.

They had Roque to for intimidating and Cougar for hidden danger, and they needed a tech to be unassuming. So Jake became that.

He should have seen Roque's betrayal coming.

After Jilly's soccer game, they stashed Jolene, baby!Pooch, Jessie, and Jilly in the same place, and while Pooch, Cougar, and Clay scouted out every possible entrance and exit, and Aisha called up a man too terrified of her to _ever_ think of double-crossing her, Jake settled himself in an out-of-the-way corner and followed a trail that maybe two other people in the world could find.

That night, he kissed Jessie and Jilly goodbye. He left the others a note.

He's been Jensen the tech for a while now, but it was time to let Jake out to play, the boy who killed his father.

He really couldn't wait to meet Max face-to-face. He only hoped Clay and Aisha would forgive him for taking the kill.


	8. tomorrow, after the war

**Title**: tomorrow, after the war

**Disclaimer**: not my characters

**Warnings**: implied child abuse

**Pairings**: pre-Cougar/Jensen

**Rating**: PG

**Wordcount**:240

**Point** **of** **view**: third

**Prompt**: Jensen, Coaching the Petunias

* * *

When he thinks about the future, actually pauses and hopes and dreams and thinks, _after this, after Max, when everything is done and I'm free_, he goes home to Jess and Jilly, and he turns the guestroom into his own Batcave, and he barbecues on the weekend and he picks up Jilly from school, and he mows the grass for Jess.

And, best of all, besides watching and mocking TV with Jess next to him and Jilly curled up in his arms, the brightest of all stars, is coaching the Petunias.

When he's their coach, they'll kick everyone's ass. It'll be such a better ending than he's ever hoped for. Better than anything he dreamed in his childhood, cowering with Jess beneath her bed, waiting for the monster to fall asleep down the hall. Better than in highschool, when he was too smart and too damned cocky, angry and bitter. Better than in basic, or when he got pulled aside for black-ops.

Better than anything he's ever thought about, even in his most hopeful moments imagined could happen.

And after this thing with Max, he'll go home to Jess and Jilly, and maybe Cougar will come with him. Cougar would love Jilly, and she'd adore him just as much as Jake does.

It'll happen. Him and Cougar and Jess and Jilly, his family. Together, with barbecues and soccer. Soon, after this thing with Max, it'll happen.

Really, it will.


	9. the time of youth was fled

**Title**: the time of youth was fled

**Fandom**: The Losers movieverse/Highlander

**Disclaimer**: not my characters; title from William Blake

**Warnings**: AU

**Pairings**: implied Cougar/Jensen

**Rating**: PG

**Wordcount**: 435

**Point of view**: third

**Prompt**: Losers/Highlander, Jensen & Clay(∨ Roque), #103. My commander is not old enough to have fought in the Civil War, and I should stop implying that he did.

* * *

As the youngest of their team, Jensen got a lot shit about being a kid, about being an infant, about listening to his elders. Once he got comfortable enough, he started calling them old men, grandpa, and asking if they needed hearing aids.

When they got paired up with another group for a mission, Jensen was reported for in-field insubordination, but Clay dealt with it before Jensen ever learned. He'd just gotten the kid trained up right and wasn't about to risk losing the best tech he'd ever had.

Jensen was smart, an excellent shot, and survived whatever got thrown at him. All of them had been on missions where they were sure he died, but then he'd show up with a last minute save and not a scratch on him, any blood the enemy's. Kid was a goddamned walking miracle.

And then came the second time they met Max. Pooch down with a shattered kneecap, Cougar gutshot, Aisha with two knives in her abdomen, and Clay on his knees gasping for air as Max's new right-hand-man chokes him.

And Jensen, already dead, on the floor.

But then Jensen is up, two guns in hand and picking off Max's men. And Jensen isn't smiling, isn't joking, is moving like a predator, quick and silent, and both guns are pointed at Max's face. Clay's free, catching his breath, and Jensen orders, "Help Cougar and Aisha."

And Max's eyes are wide and he says, "You _have_ to show me how you did that."

Now Jensen smiles, and it's the most terrifying thing Clay's ever seen.

"I had hoped," Jensen says, "that I'd have time to play with you." He shrugs, drops the smile, and pulls both triggers.

One to the heart, Clay notes, one to the head. And then twelve more, six from each gun, and Jensen turns to their team.

"I'll explain later," he mutters, shoving Pooch out of the way so that he can look at Cougar.

They all survive, and get out of Max's underground lair just before it catches fire. And when Jensen explains, once they're safe and hidden, Clay listens in shock, not sure if be believes.

Because Jensen says he's not a kid. Says he's older than America, older than the English language itself.

But it does explain a great deal, and whatever it is, it saved them.

And when Clay calls him _kid_, when Pooch says Jensen's still his brother, when Aisha shrugs, and when Cougar reaches up to cup Jensen's cheek, Jensen smiles and relaxes and starts to babble about some technical shit, and Clay knows they'll be just fine.


	10. Perhaps I was born kneeling

**Title**: Perhaps I was born kneeling

**Disclaimer**: not my characters; title from Anne Sexton

**Warnings**: AUish

**Pairings**: pre-Cougar/Jensen

**Rating**: PG

**Wordcount**: 235

**Point** **of** **view**: third

**Prompt**: The Losers, Jensen, team. They don't have a name for what he is.

* * *

He's on his knees coughing up bullets, and Cougar is shooting all the fuckers surrounding him, and Clay is yelling somewhere to his left, and Pooch is gasping in pain. (Aisha is on the way, but she's too late, _too late_.)

(And Roque. Goddamned Roque, he's still gone.)

And Jensen. Jensen, he's laughing. Catches the bullets in his hands and stares up at the sky, and all his killers are dead. Pooch might be dying.

Clay is silent, and Aisha's running.

Cougar whispers into his com, "Jensen?"

Jensen closes his eyes, tells himself, _you're Jake Jensen, get a grip, hold on tight, don't let go_, and opens his eyes to reply, "Everything's fine."

He stands, lets the bullets fall, and hurries to Pooch.

(Jakob Jensen is not his name. Not the one he was born with, anyway. [Not that he was born.]

He asked his maker once, and his maker laughed.

"I'll call you what I like," his maker said, "and for now, that is slave.")

Clay has questions, and Aisha demands answers, and Pooch thanks him, and Cougar—Cougar simply touches him and nods.

(He'll have to tell Cougar later, when Cougar should die but doesn't. He'll have to explain when he lets Clay and Aisha die, when he gets his hands around Max's neck and Max disintegrates into dust.

But that's later. This is now.

And for now, he's Jakob Jensen, and he's a man.)


	11. what it means to be blessed

Title: If that is what it means to be blessed, well, I'll be damned

Disclaimer: not my characters; title from Grace Bauer

Warnings: implied child abuse; blackmail; possibly impossible computer stuff; pre-canon

Pairings: pre-Cougar/Jensen

Rating: PG

Wordcount: 590

Point of view: third

Prompt: The Losers, Any, I mean you guys are my friends and all but if you fuck with me I will not hesitate to set you on fire

* * *

Jake Jensen is not your normal geek. Okay, so that's obvious, what with being all black-ops and stuff, but, seriously. He's not. And his whole life, people have given him shit for bucking expectations. He's made it into an _artform_, alright? He's kickass, and he's fucking smart (like, really, he is _fucking smart_, okay?) and he's funny, and he's dangerous. Don't let the babble fool you, or the shirts, or the computer.

All Jake Jensen needs to rule the world is a computer in one hand and caffeine in the other.

But he knows how to blend in. Really, he does. It's the only reason he's lived to see twenty-five, and meet his team. And he loves them, really he does, but it took awhile, because Jake Jensen does not trust easily, oh no he doesn't. He's been burned, and scarred, and beaten into the ground, and he survives, he always survives, him and Jess. (And Jilly, she's getting so big now, and everything he does, he does for her.)

So, Clay seems like a good man, and Roque's trying so hard to be scary, and Pooch does his best to keep the peace, and Cougar stares. Cougar stares an awful lot, but Jake just stares back. Sometimes, he even raises an eyebrow or grins, showing all his teeth.

Okay, seriously, the whole point. Jake got dumped on the Losers, everyone's favorite group of expert screw-ups who can't work with other people, as his last stop on the way out the door, because he can blend in and take all sorts of shit, but he won't roll over and be stomped on. He gets punched, he'll punch back with credit ratings and creatively edited classified information, and there is never any evidence because he's too good for that – but, the problem is, he's i_too good/i_. There are maybe five people in the world as good as him. So, yeah, no evidence. But also no other suspects.

Anyway, the Losers. His last chance. And the higher-ups really don't want Jake to go, because he's either working for The Man or against The Man, and they'd have no chance. Like, none. At all. So it's either make this work or vanish into some _other _shady program and be shackled to a desk until he dies (probably from a bullet to the back of his head, execution style).

But he's done rolling over. He's done taking it.

Fuck, he's done blending in.

So, a month into his tenure with Clay and his boys, Jake gets right up in Roque's face and tells him, "If you keep fucking with me, I will make it so you were never born." No bullshit, no blinking. Just Jake the survivor, staring this big scary man in the eyes and _knowing _what he can and cannot do.

And Roque nods, and steps back, and Jake breathes out a quiet sigh of relief. Because he thinks he might've finally found his place, and he doesn't want to go, not again.

"You got balls, kid," Roque rumbles as he stalks out the door.

Jake smiles and throws himself onto his bunk, pulling his laptop over. It's Jilly's first day at pre-k and he needs to make sure she's happy or else he'll be destroying someone. Again.

(Really, Jess, did you expect anything less?)

"Hey, Cougar," he says without looking up. "You actually gonna talk today or just stare?"

No answer. Of course not.

Jake thinks this might be home, for awhile, at least.

(But he doesn't trust these men. Not yet.)


End file.
